Colossus

My Work.

We were given the task of creating a handful of colossus images, when we were set this task I thought I would struggle with this. I looked online at some examples of images that included images of giants and colossus, I came across really professinal images that used size and placement perfectly these include; Anchorman, The borrowers and energy drink adverts. I was hoping these images would give me inspiration and had an impact on the way my work turned out

 We had to taken some landscape shot from the college rooftop and other in the photo studio of a participant who would become our colossus. When he had taken these pictures we had to draw where we wanted the colossus to be and how we wanted it to be posed. We had to make sure the lighting in the studio pictures would match the landscape and tell the participant to do specific poses for the image, this was a really fun experience.

Once we had all the photographs we needed, it was time to manipulate them into colossus'. We had to create 4 colossus' and also make a 3D version too. 

First of all I cropped rick(participant) so he could be put into the image, this wasn't too hard, used the wand tool on photoshop (insert image) and then smoothed the edges if needed and neatened it up.

This is one of the better images in my mind, I used the landscape and characters correctly and I think it turned out well as I thought I would really struggle. I had done a pose where I was leant against something and this picture perfectly suited this.

To make it 3D I added a red screen and a cyan screen, we had to move the red one to the right 2-3 times and cyan to the left 2-3 times. Before making these images 3D I had never done this before so I was hesitant and thought it might be quite technical but in the end it was easy.

 The second image I like because its quite different to the others and this one once again interacts the colossus with the surroundings. We took these picture at stockport counties ground and from a lowish sort of angle which gives the image great perspective. When I took the picture I thought of how I could incorporate a colossus into it and in my mind this was a good placement and just what I wanted to achieve.

Once again I did the same process with each making the 3D images, I could feel myself getting faster whilst doing it and I felt I had learnt something that may come in handy at sometime in the future in other projects.

The second image I wanted to look good in 3D so we did an almost stereotypical poses in the photo studio with the participant doing a outward grab pose, I thought this would compliment the 3D factor of this project and I think it turned out good and a bit different from other images my class mates were doing.

This piece was made 3D in the same way.

 This images was my first image, I only planned on adding 1 person to this picture but it had the arcitexture that really shouted out to me and it seemed too good of an idea not to add more people, when researching movie and advertisement cover/posters I thought it was clever how they adapted the people to the background, so in this one I thought I would be a bit different and try something a bit more difficult.

Research.

First of all I looked into Anchorman  posters as the film was newly released and i remember seeing images of the actors blow up in size, I found some images and they were really advanced but great examples. I also looked into Gullivers travels and The Borrowers, these films had a a big difference in time of release so I wanted to look at an older image and a more recent one.

I Found these really interesting, how different but similar some images can be and the difference in foreground and background. Also the images were all set in the town / city where the story takes places so I thought in the future id know to do this for example if I did an energy drink image I would maybe place the colossus like crouching in  basketball court or on a running track because most of the images have a relatable factor in the background and foreground.

When looking for images I wanted to get images that weren't that similar because looking at a broader range of images you see how other peoples work differentiates. Most of the images I looked at were actually not too complicated they must of just had great digital artists.

 This was the first one I came across and I like the poses that they pulled and how they were made to fit in the picture rather than the background fitting to them. The shadows also make the picture look realistic also the perspective is really good as it makes them look more exaggerated. Before seeing this I didn't know how much work went it to these sort of pictures, like the lighting that would of been used and things like that.

I also noticed how the backgrounds were digitally manipulated and i realised how the background is just as important as the foreground in some pictures I mean, if you have a busy background and a bold foreground image you get a composition thats very pleasing.

The second image I chose was of Jack Black in gullivers travels, I thought this image was a good choice because its not such a simple pose and I think it really impacted on one of my images as my participant did, I told them to make a similar stance / pose and it turned out really well and this was the inspiration for that. Even though its not it looks really cartoony to me like it blends fiction and really good art into one picture.  This Poster is also quite simple, everything looks very clean but also like achievable, this really pushed me to try and complete good pieces of work.

This is the oldest picture from 1997, the film borrowers sort of set the path way for films like this, I think this is one of the images that really used digital manipulation do make a giant / colossus, before this film posters were sometimes just drawn because computers didn't really compliment this process also back then it would of been simple and more limited on the tools they could use to manipulate the images but I think this in a way add nostalgia to the film and the poster itself. The main difference with this one is the fact that you see the smaller ones rather than the full body of the giant, this give you a good perspective and a good view and look into the story.

All of the posters, were really clear, they made you know some part of the story too which I found very interesting and how I could maybe use that in a different circumstances.

Overall these images have had a big impact on my work, some of the poses I used and incorporated in to my own work and perspective too, this was also impacted. When looking into these images I feel I have learnt a lot and come out with a better understanding of using software and other tools to my advantage. The research I did really helped and i changed and mixed ideas up through out.

Evaluation

We started a photography project and we were given the task of making digitally manipulated colossus images, when we were told this I was somewhat hesitant yet looking forwards to the idea of creating these images.

We started to research movies, advertisements and other things that contained digitally manipulated colossus' in them, we also had to write about the images we liked, why and how they influenced our work. I noticed many themes in the pictures and how they involved the story in the background and main characters in the foreground. After looking at many images I think my understanding of how people and companies create workings like these, they also had great influence on my work, the placement and poses included.

Photography, this is something that was new to me but I found I really enjoyed it, the freedom of it but also the amount of fun you can have when taking and being in picture. First of all we were sent in pairs to the photo studio to take images for our colossus images, here we were taking picture of participants, in poses that we think suited the corrected pictures, this was a fun experience. It was also fun being included in a class mates colossus project. when we were both happy with the pictures, we had to the people we had taken picture of into the images, we did this on photoshop which was now just a standard procedure, knowing where the giant / colossus would be we then placed them, added shadow if necessary and touched up parts to make the image look smoother and of a higher standard.

We had to create a minimum of 4 images and once we had completed these we had to make them 3D which seemed like it would be really difficult or tedious but it turned out to be one of the most simple things I had done within this project. All I needed to do was add screens of red and cyan and move them left and right and it was done.

I really enjoyed this project, it was to drawn out and long, it was a simple get the job done to good standard and quickly as possible and I think I did that. Unlike other projects we have completed prior to this I found this was more pin pointed to what we had to do which I liked because I feel once I know what the finish point should be I can get working to it straightaway.

Overall I think I achieved what I wanted to achieve and worked reasonably hard on this project and was one of the most enjoyable units up to this point, I think if we were given more time I could of accomplished a better piece of work but overall I'm very happy with what I achieved within this unit.